English in summer time, of course!!!

We’re kicking off the summer holidays and we’re really looking forward to it. We’ll be relaxing in the heart of the Dehesa Charra, spending time with friends from the village, family and wonderful neighbours.

We live in a village that’s buzzing with life in the summer; the council organises loads of activities. It’s impossible to get bored here!
We haven’t forgotten that learning requires perseverance and a desire to learn… and this summer we’ve already started working on reading, writing and problem-solving in English.
We’ve brought our library of English-language books to the village and have started reading one book a day together, out loud.
Reading aloud is absolutely vital for comprehension, and when it comes to a second language, it also helps to improve pronunciation and spoken fluency.
Yesterday we read Robin Hood and today we’ll be reading stories by Dickens adapted for Year 2 ESO level.

I’ll also be surprising you with a really cool series for 11-year-olds with a high level of English.
The series is called ‘Investigators’.

 
In addition, in the mornings I’ll be consolidating their comprehension and writing skills through simple scenarios in which they have to use sentence structures and recall vocabulary.

I have preapared a big notebook for summer time with spanish, maths and english tasks to do each day.

Álvar has had a relax year, he has  done little progess in learning in general subjects such as spanish or maths. We have done too much at home just to keep the learning progress he could follow.

Martín, has had some traditions teacher and he has worked too much this year...

Both need to practice at home, and my kids have luck...me and my husband are teachers...so learning at home, for them, It is quite easy!!!.

Here some of the tasks they have done:

In the summer it’s time to rest, but when we enjoy something, we love to keep learning… so we’ll carry on with #OneHourEnglishAtHome… but now we’ll be doing it every day.

Gotham, Next Adventure

 As we do every weekend, we spend an hour each day working on communication and expression in English. 

Last week we weren’t able to work at home because Álvar was on a language immersion trip and we were at a wedding in the Basque Country.

We are very lucky to have such excellent professionals involved in every aspect of our children’s overall education. Firstly, Álvar and Martín’s teacher, Cris, who has generously given them the opportunity to attend a language immersion centre in Ávila; secondly, Ivana, the teacher at the INFIL school where we’ve taken A&M since they were very young; and I must also mention Irene, the nanny of one of Álvar’s best friends.

Irene is a real gem for the village of Doñinos. She’s a lovely lady who gives extra tuition and English lessons in the village and runs fantastic workshops so that the children of Doñinos can enjoy unique creative and immersive experiences.

Following the workshop Irene has proposed for the end of this school year, and the other one to do of the next...Today, we have  reviewed the Topic 6 of Year 5th in english at home; and we have worked in a playful, creative way using real-life contexts to express what we are going to find in Gotham Adventure in septembre '26...

By the way..we are going to be part of the 19th june party "TARDEO"...It Will be also nice experiences, of couse!!!

With this in mind, I suggested to Álvar that he make a paper flyer about the adventure Irene will be leading in September. 

Objectives:

1. To practise the future continuous tense in a real-life context.
2. To consciously study the vocabulary from Topic 6.
3. To develop communication skills using simple expressions that answer the ‘5Ws’.

Here some picture about the result:

Conclusions:

1. We have worked happily.
2. We have created a nice educative product in which we can show what we know.
3. We like trainning communication skills with maker culture methodologies.
4. It is nice to do st to express gratitude to some of these nice people Who collaborate with us in bringing Up our kids ( this time we do It for Irene). This is an important value for life, and in our house we try to teach it everyday.

Kids Who travel; kids Who know profit a immersion journey

 Álvar has returned today from his first language immersion trip.

He arrived happy and with a rucksack full of new knowledge.

We can never thank Cris, Ana and Sonsoles enough for their hard work and generosity. Three teachers who have given up their weekend free time to make this language experience accessible to the Year 5 pupils at Doñinos.

They are exemplary, dedicated teachers with a high level of professionalism. Because let’s not kid ourselves, this responsibility outside school hours is unpaid.

The centre where they went for the immersion programme is in Gredos, Ávila.

They took part in some really cool activities, well designed to encourage communication, teamwork and fun.

Álvar has told us that he won several prizes and that he communicated effectively at all times... so we’re continuing to focus on consistent, ongoing work at home in everything...

We usually travel abroad at least twice a year and these experiences are very important for our kids to understand how importan is english nowadays. 

Here are some worksheets from the Gredos Centre

First english immersion; with Cris.

This weekend Álvar was alone with us. Martín was in a spring camp near here. 

We have had too much time to do things we like: go to our villages, go hiking and enjoy with traditions...

We are very grateful to Álvar’s English teacher, Cris Novoa, who has taken on the challenge of leading our children on the Year 5 class’s first immersion trip.

It is a real gift that, at this age, a teacher would choose to give up her free time so that our children can begin to function in English independently, within an English-speaking environment that encourages them to make an effort with the language.

Thank you, thank you, thank you...

Just like every weekend, whether there are exams or not, we practice English at home; we speak and read in English...

And there’s nothing better than using the numerous activities Álvar has planned for this week to practice vocabulary and grammatical structures.

Today we practiced ‘Going to’ using the programme of activities sent to us from the Gredos immersion trip...

• On monday: class
• On tuesday: class
• On wednesday: trip to Ávila
• On thursday: Neonymus
• On friday: Two trips...but the Very BEST is to Gredos!

And with this planning we were practicing grammar and vocabulary. Unit 6.

I am going to TRAVEL abroad (summer plans)

 

As we do every weekend, we practice English at home. 

This week has been very tough, so we’ve used all the time we would normally have spent on the subjects Álvar and Martín had exams in to practice speaking, reading and grammar a little.

Specifically, the main topic has been the European Union and the evolution of species within this society.

Drawing on our travel experiences, we’ve also started practicing ‘Going to’ with plans for the immediate future (this summer) and plans that are a bit further off but very much on our minds.

We use “going to” to describe our plans for this summer.

1) Going to our villages, having a  village is the BEST for kids...and spending time with friends and cousins is  the BEST plan for summer.

Aldehuela, on of our villages IS a very dynamic town, with too many kids and with nice places to enjoy together ( swiming pool, fields, nice paths, excelentes views...).

2) Doing water sports at Santi Petri. We’ll be going back to CadizFornia.

3) Upcoming trips: Munich, Denmark, Athens

And finally, we like the music, so we enjoy listening excellent messages like this:

Vocabulary reviews

Today, we train vocabulary and communication skills. My kids are very good in english and for them, It is not enough to memorize words  to get better... 

Obviously, memorizing is important...but when kids know the words...they need a contexto to use them and to lear comprehensive. So, how They nowadays know the words, I consider they can go further...

I want not only my kids know the meening of the words but also explain the meening using gramar and trainning oral skills..

Pegasus’ promise: A tale of unity and peace

Today, 9 May, is Europe Day, and as European citizens who love travelling around Europe, we felt we had to take some time to mark a day like today.

We are very lucky to have the knowledge and resources to teach our children about Europe.

As I do every year, I organise educational activities related to Europe at the school where I work. And it’s the @eurodirectsalamanca service that always provides me with brilliant resources

This year I’ve discovered a very interesting document on history, geography and politics, adapted for children. 

This week, Álvar and Martín are swamped with exams, so it’s up to us to study (in some cases almost from scratch, because I don’t think it’s possible to learn about the EU simply by reading a section in a book and copying exactly what it says into a notebook... 

I don’t know, I think we have to teach and the students have to study and memorise... but when it comes to topics of territorial organisation and politics, it requires many other resources to bring the simple idea we want to convey down to earth...)

Anyway, As well as that excellent resource about EU that Álvar has analysed... I’ve discovered a brilliant audiobook in English to improve our communicatiln skills . And here we are practicing our listening...in a cute context.

Try it! It Is a real way of learning.

That’s why the title of this post is.

Link: https://europa.eu/kids-corner/audiobook-files/2023.1883_Audiobook_Pegasus_final_EN.mp3

Here the script https://learning-corner.learning.europa.eu/document/download/083278dd-2eff-40b5-af1e-00e6a24871c4_en?filename=Pegasus%20Script%20EN.pdf

This is a very interesting way to prepare the Social Science Exam about Europe, and the english exam practicing the listening.